As there are no AAR's out for this game yet i thought i would write one along similar lines to the one i did for Advanced Tactics - sort of learn as i play.

I have played two axis games so far, but only to the point of defeating poland in one and defeating the benelux in the other. So here goes - first serious game !

As it has been confirmed by the developers that the number of production points may be a bit low, i have decided to mod the files a little to bump these up a bit as follows -

** All turns are now weekly, this does not change with the seasons as normal (i.e. less in winter) - more turns = more production.

** All cities and resources on the map have been modded to double in value.

** All non-axis aligned countries will be set to 'very easy' level giving them an additional 100 % bonus in production points.

** All axis aligned countries (Current members and potential members) will be set to 'very hard' level , which will reduce production points by 100 %

What this means is i will start as Germany with normal production and all allied and comintern countries will have four times as many as normal. However i will pick up additional production points through conquest and will hopefully add more members to the axis along the way.

As i play through the game any countries that join the axis will then be then controlled by me (Using F1 to change to Human control), but not until that point so to start with i am playing Germany and Slovakia.

Production from cities is self explanitory, Production from resources comes from small 'factory' type hexes on the map which as far as i can tell are similar to cities in game terms except you cannot deploy newly formed units there and they dont have any Victoy point value.

Occupied cities add 15% of their production value and then when annexed that is increased to 25.

Social unrest modifies production if it drops below 100% as does the war economy - Germany starts at 100%, other countrie build this up as the game progresses.

Finally as i am playing at 'Very Hard' Difficulty level i have a -50% modifier on those figures, cutting my production in half.

I am going to try and update on a monthly basis (i.e. every 4 turns). First off is the invasion of poland. To give an idea of the scale of the map and a (distant!) look at troop positions i have marked Berlin and Warsaw on this screenshot, showing the 26 hex between these cities -

The idea is to contain all polish forces as much as possible with part of the army and head straight for warsaw with the rest, taking as little casualties as possible. The polish forces are not as advanced as the germans so this invasion should go to plan.

This is the situation after the initial german moves, several polish divisions have been destroyed without much loss for the germans -

The polish forces attempt to defend their cities , but make no offensive moves and pay for their outdated defence by losing their capital, and their nation on the fourth week. German tactics and fast movement overpowered the poles who seemed to want to fight a static defence by hoding key cities.

Losses in the polish campaign were relatively light. A stubborn defence of warsaw accounting for the majority of the losses.

The above screenshot shows that poland lost 21 points in the campaign whilst i lost 3.93. If several countries had participated on each side this report would show the losses taken and given by each nation to each other nation.

One interesting point was that the polish ai actually deployed at least one new unit around warsaw, i hadnt seen that before, so i think my next campaigns may not be as easy...

Excellant AAR and beginners guide so far. I actually managed to get Poland in 3 turns. Moved my Panzers quickly forward to Warsaw after some of the infantry made some room for them to go. Then when they were at Warsaw had the Luftwaffe bombard. Looking forward on how you handle the invasion of Denmark and/or Norway.

With poland now under german 'leadership' polish production is geared towards helping the german war effort. Although the production point ratio the conquerer receives is only a quarter of what would normally be produced, nevertheless Germanys economy is boosted -

Most of the production points that i have so far have been invested in research. I have started researching artillery (which improves all infantry units) by purchasing two 'lightbulbs' worth of research investment.

Throughout October i am shifting forces from poland to the france/benelux border. The french are sitting behind the maginot line (You get an event telling you of this, which as you know is historical) so i have time to prepare and can attack in the west when i am ready.

One thing i have noticed is a lack of garrisons in some german cities. As some of these cities are in vunerable locations (coasts etc - see below screenshot of northwestern germany) i am going to make my first unit purchases garrisons for these cities.

I Have set up nine new divisions to ensure that all my cities have a defensive unit. One feature i like about this game is that you can manufacture units that are less tech than your current level. To me this nicely represents second line and front line divisions - if you cant afford the best all the time!

For example i have produced three divisions at my current tech level two (31.5 PP each) to be deployed in the three cities shown in the previous screenshot and six divisions at tech level one (20 PP each) to garrison cities which are in 'safer' areas of the reich. These can be upgraded later if neccesarry.

Above is my deployment screen - all units are currently named 'new unit' - you can rename these units as well as other units in the game.

While the majority of german forces are massing in the west, an attack on the danes is planned. As Copenhagen is the only danish city with a Victory Point score i will attack there as taking this city will force the danes to surrender.

As copenhagen is on an island and not attached to mainland europe, i will have have to use an amphibious landing. Here is the plan -

I could have attempted a coupt d'etat, which would have made denmark more aligned to the axis or exerted political pressure on denmark to keep them from joining the allies. But they are not important enough or strong enough to waste diplomatic points on.

Amphibious landings are handled by buying Amphibious Invasion Points (AIP's). I think this is a great feature as the cost of these makes it expensive to move even one division like this (As it should be) -

As shown above, this one division landing is going to cost me 50PP's - I could get two and a half new infantry divisions at tech level 1 for that price!